Former Indian chief selector MSK Prasad has questioned Nitish Kumar Reddy’s selection for the Border-Gavaskar trophy against Australia. Prasad highlighted that Reddy doesn’t have a lot of red-ball cricket experience and he isn’t as express as talismanic all-rounder Hardik Pandya, who could bowl around 140 kmph.

Reddy has played 21 first-class matches for Andhra Pradesh and he has scored 708 runs at an average of 21.45 and has scalped 55 wickets at an average of 26.01. 

Reddy recently made an impressive start to his T20I career against Bangladesh. The right-hander scored 90 runs in three matches against the Tigers and also picked three wickets. But the youngster bowls around the 125-130 kmph mark.

“They are sure about his batting and that he can bowl 8-10 overs like Hardik Pandya used to bowl. But he is not Hardik, who bowls at 140. He just bowls at 125 to 130 kmph. I am just a little concerned with his experience in red ball cricket because he hasn’t played the format enough.”

“He did take about 25 wickets in a few of the last domestic seasons, but still, I’m concerned because of the kind of role we gave to Hardik back then after whatever Test cricket he had played. I hope he makes good use of the two India A matches he is supposed to play.”

Reddy will look to grab his chance if he makes his Test debut against Australia. The opening Test match between India and Australia will be played at Perth from November 22 onwards.

India squad for Australia Tests: Rohit Sharma (C), Jasprit Bumrah (VC), Yashasvi Jaiswal, Abhimanyu Easwaran, Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, KL Rahul, Rishabh Pant (WK), Sarfaraz Khan, Dhruv Jurel (WK), R Ashwin, R Jadeja, Mohd. Siraj, Akash Deep, Prasidh Krishna, Harshit Rana, Nitish Kumar Reddy, Washington Sundar

Reserves: Mukesh Kumar, Navdeep Saini, Khaleel Ahmed